The Thomas Blog

4 Tech Trends That Are Reshaping Inbound Marketing

A multifaceted approach focused on attracting customers through the dissemination of helpful, relevant content and thoughtful interaction, inbound marketing allows potential customers to find you through various channels, including blogs, social media, and search engines. While traditional outbound marketing aims to push products, inbound marketing allows potential clients to become aware of a company organically.

But technological innovations and general shifts in the B2B landscape are drastically changing the way inbound marketing campaigns are structured and implemented. Chances are, you’re no longer reading emails on a Blackberry or browsing the internet using a dial-up connection; with today’s technology, content can be accessed in countless ways, whether in the office or on the go.

Below are four major technology trends shaping the face of inbound marketing today and what they mean for your company’s marketing campaigns.

Don’t Get Left B2Behind: Why Product Manufacturers Need to Embrace A B2C Mentality

When industrial buyers aren’t at work, they behave as everyday consumers; they shop online, they compare products for deals that best balance quality and value, and they shop independently, relying on freely available resources rather than salespeople to help them in their decision-making processes.

What Makes A Great Social Media Campaign?

To successfully reach the buyers you’re targeting and garner the leads you’re looking for, inbound marketing campaigns should encompass a range of different methods and channels.

Social media, in particular, is playing an increasingly important role in industrial digital marketing, allowing companies to connect personally with fellow industry leaders and attract potential leads.

The 4 Biggest Industrial Marketing Challenges Of 2017

Now is an ideal time to check on your progress toward your 2017 marketing goals. Are you on track for lead generation? What about spending? More importantly, have your efforts shown signs of profitability?

Thomas Index Report: Hurricane Harvey

To help buyers and suppliers stay ahead of the latest shifts and emerging trends, we constantly analyze the industrial/B2B buying activity taking place at Thomasnet.com, where every 2 seconds a buyer evaluates a supplier. This powerful, proprietary data fuels our Thomas Industrial Index.

This week we take a look at sourcing in and around the Houston area in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, with our data adding some insight into the sheer magnitude of the disaster. Here’s what we’re seeing:

5 Digital Marketing Tips To Reach More Buyers

As technologies continue to advance and industrial buyers increasingly turn to the internet for the information they need to find suppliers and source products, digital marketing has become indispensable in the B2B manufacturing and industrial sphere. Sending out mailers or relying on word of mouth is no longer enough to attract and convert valuable leads; now, a multifaceted approach is necessary to stay relevant in today’s shifting B2B landscape. 

Nearshoring Vs. Reshoring: What’s the Difference?

Over the past few years, there’s been increasing interest in bringing U.S. manufacturing back to American shores, or “reshoring.” But “nearshoring,” or moving operations to nearby countries, rather than very far away, is becoming increasingly popular as a more economical, practical alternative to offshoring.

It’s important to have a solid understanding of both concepts when deciding on the best strategy for your company. Below, we’ll take a deeper look at these two options and compare their benefits and drawbacks.

Thomas Index Report: Custom Injection Molding

To help buyers and suppliers stay ahead of the latest shifts and emerging trends in the digital industrial economy, we constantly analyze the industrial/B2B buying activity taking place at Thomasnet.com, where every 2 seconds a buyer evaluates a supplier on our platform. This powerful, proprietary data fuels our Thomas Industrial Index.

Here’s what we’re seeing in the Index this week:

Cybersecurity In Today's Interconnected Supply Chain: Don't Build An Apartment. Build A House.

Take a moment to consider all of the components of your organization’s supply chain. Commonly, quite a few capital assets come to mind: raw materials, machinery, warehousing, logistics, distribution centers, brick and mortar sites, office locations, point of sales, and so much more.

Whether it’s keeping employees connected to one another, interacting with customers, or generally exchanging data from one system to another, interconnectivity is a crucial, but risky, component of supply chain management.

And, in a world where millions of cyberattacks happen each day, companies can no longer afford to approach cybersecurity with an “if this happens” mindset, rather establish the proper structure and protocol for when it does.